Posted By On November 5, 2010 @ 7:00 am In Hockey,New York Rangers | 193 Comments

1) Bottom line: The Rangers didn’t accomplish anything with their forecheck. Nothing at all. And the Flyers gave them nothing at all. The Rangers had 21 shots, and the post by Brandon Prust. It seemed like they had three until late in the third.

2) Jody Shelley is sure game, but you could kind of tell he knew he was going to get his butt kicked if he went toe-to-toe with Derek Boogaard. But Shelley is just sooooo much better as a player than Boogaard. And this was another example how having Boogaard, even having Boogaard beat up the opponent’s tough guy, has no effect whatsoever. In fact, Boogaard was more of a factor later, when he hit a few Flys.

3) Can’t even find words to describe how bad a play that was by Marc Staal on the 1-1 goal by Richards. The Rangers were short-handed, had only four men on the ice … and two of them were in the corner against one Flyer. Staal was the left defenseman. The puck was in the right defensive corner. On the left defenseman’s side was Richards, all alone. And while the TV guys told you what a great pass it was to Richards, how good did it have to be with NOBODY in the, oh, 15 yards, between the passer and Richards?

4) Brandon Prust=One Tough S.O.B. Brandon Prust=Team Guy.

5) Did you hear all the praise of Lundqvist before the game. I mean, he’s playing well, but it’s not like he’d never played better. He gave up a terrible goal vs. Chicago, and the one he allowed to Zherdev from the corner was woeful. If you stand against the near post, the puck can’t go in. I learned that at hockey camp when I was, like, 12.

6) Speaking of Zherdev, Alex Frolov anybody? You could tell he didn’t want to be in Philly in the second period, when the Rangers won a draw right to him in the slot, on his forehand, and he dumped it into the corner instead of standing in there and taking a high-percentage shot.

7) Do you think the NHL will ever smarten up and have on-ice officials on the ice during warmups? Because one of those Philadelphia-Montreal pre-game brawls is coming. It’s absolutely coming. Most guys know better, but one of these days somebody will throw a punch and it’ll be a free-for-all.

8) Speaking of that, Colin Campbell’s office better be looking at that head shot by Carcillo on Fedotenko, and better be giving Carcillo an unpaid vacation. I agree with Mike Keenan. The response needed to be immediate, and it wasn’t.

9) Do you actually know anybody who actually watches Boomer and Carton on MSG. And if so, do you think it was that stupid promo where Carton tries to insist Boomer owes him “a hundy” is what made them watch?

10) And speaking of that, do we really need a Christmas commercial by Mercedes on Nov. 4?